Michael Bester • Photos

Stumbling Along The Horizon

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

When driving east along the southern loop road in Iceland, there's this spot where some old gnarly, graffiti covered steel beams which jut out into the air. They're nearly horizontal, and impressively large. Just how far they go, suspended in mid air, made me wonder how much of them must be buried. They must be huge!

What they're doing there, I have no idea. Aside from the road itself, there's nothing else visible around there that is man made. And on a clear day, like this one was, you can see for miles from there.

Spring Sidewalk

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

Snowmound

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

I'm no botanist or even gardener, but I believe these are called Spiraea nipponica, or Snowmound. They grow in gardens near my home, and, hey, they're picturesque when they bloom in the springtime.

Reflection Check

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

What's that swimming around in the pond?

The Rainbow Skeleton

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

These 12-foot tall skeletons are very popular around my neighborhood. After they first cropped up a few years ago, I imagine some people who got one (or more), didn't think much about where they would store these big guys in the off season. So there are a few that live down walkways, and behind fences year round.

My neighborhood also happens to be a very inclusive place. It’s Extremely Woke™, if you will, and that is fine by me. Different lifestyles are celebrated here, and skele here wants you to know that they support you.

Out Come The Birks

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

It's May again. Flowers that were in bloom for a week are falling to the ground, blanketing it in pink petals. The sun is shining. Time pull out the Birkenstocks.

New England Lights

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

This is certainly not the most magnificent photo ever taken of the aurora borealis. The magnificent thing about it is where this happened. For some reason, on this particular October night, some aggressively saucy solar flares hit the atmosphere somewhere between latitude 42° and 43° just right to light up the night sky over Massachusetts. This is an extremely rare sight here, roughly halfway between the North Pole and the equator.

While I was out this night, looking up to see the sky glowing in colors that it normally doesn't and snapping some photos, I didn't actually see this particular view. That credit goes to my daughter, who snapped this photo with her phone while hanging out with friends. It was the winner of the night.

Misty Morning Dew

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

Even though I've walked down this street numerous times, I hadn't noticed the broken fence before this morning. The light of daybreak filtering through the light fog and trees behind it definitely caught my attention. It is as if the fence had broken just to show off this lovely moment.

Sometime after I took this photo, that old broken fence was replaced with a hideous wall of bright white PVC. It's a reminder of the impermanence of the beauty that we come across, so I'm glad I stopped that morning to appreciate the moment.

Lunch Lady

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

I don't know her name, but her presence was unforgettable.

We had just arrived in Onomichi (hat tip to Craig Mod, who recommended visiting there). It was perhaps two in the afternoon and we were craving something to eat. The Shin-Onomichi train station is a few kilometers north of the city itself, and there aren't too many lunch options nearby when you step off the train. We did find a small sushi place down the main road a bit and popped in. It felt very lived in. There was nobody there except a reserved older woman behind the counter, whom I took to be the proprietor. She seemed a bit surprised to see us, a couple of gaijin, in her place, but she nonetheless led us to a table the far corner of the dining room. With a lot of awkward back and forth and pointing to pictures on the menu, we managed to order something to eat.

As we were waiting for our lunch, Lunch Lady walked in. She spotted us sitting in the corner, and evidently delighted to see us, waved broadly and called out across the room kon'nichiwa! She continued talking to us in Japanese, which we couldn't understand, and she didn't speak a lick of English. But she carried herself with such vibrant ebullience, that the language barrier didn't matter. And her sartorial sensibilities... I mean, just look at that zebra-striped mock turtleneck! Check out that lavender shawl echoing her purple hair! (I love the safety pin at the bottom holding it closed—sensible!) That turtle brooch pinned to the shawl! It's all a wonderful expression of her vibrant individuality. She was positively delightful.

She was evidently a friend of the proprietor, as they got to chatting like old friends do while we ate our lunch. When we finished, I asked them both—with the help of a translation app—if I could take their pictures. The proprietor declined, but Lunch Lady was absolutely game, delighted by the idea. I snapped off a few shots, showed them the photos, and we all shared a laugh over the experience.

Kiyosumi

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

On my first visit to Japan, we spent the first few days in Tokyo. If you've spent any time there, you'll know that is a maximalist city that can easily overwhelm the senses. The lights, the sounds, the masses of people, the pachinko parlors, the sheer scale of the place -- it can be a lot to take in.

But there are also spots of respite and quietude peppered throughout the city. These are places where you can slow down, reflect, and listen to your thoughts for a while. These are places of such stark contrast to the din of rest the city that it's startling when you step foot in one. Kiyosumi Garden, where I took the photo above, is one such spot. The two hours I spent here were sufficient to balance the sensory overload of the previous few days.

Kensico

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

While on a Thanksgiving trip to visit family, we stopped by the Kensico Dam Park nearby. We hiked up to one end of the dam, and walked across to the other. This is looking back, as we started to make our way down.

Grasshoppers Do It Too

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

I don't know much about the sexual practices of grasshoppers, but when I saw these two, of course I wondered if they were making grasshopper babies. They were pretty stationary though for the few minutes I watched them, so maybe not. Perhaps they just like to ride on one another's back.

A Foggy Bay

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

I've taken many photos of this spot. The way the fog blankets the park across the bay and that wispy cloud looks almost like a lightning bolt cutting across the sky if you squint at it just right make this particular moment really beautiful to me.

Faux Français

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

It was a lovely spring day, my first visit to Paris. Amanda and I chose one of the many cafes within spitting distance at which to have lunch. We sat down at one of their outdoor tables. It happened to have English language menus on it, so we picked them up to have a look. A moment later, our waiter sees us looking at them, hastily comes up to us and plucks them away, saying something to the effect of...

Désolé, je vais vous chercher des menus français...

Sorry, I'll get you some French menus.

We weren't trying to pass ourselves off as French, but we were absolutely tickled at the idea that he took one look at us and assumed we must be French. While he went off to fetch the menus which I'd have a much harder time reading, I snapped this selfie. Even though I look a little too pleased with myself, I love this photo. It's a marker of one of my favorite moments from that trip.

Extremely Blue

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

Oh, just a pair of irises in bloom. They happen to be growing on the back side a sign, so most folks will pass them by without seeing them. I figured they might appreciate a bit of attention.

Dog Food

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

It was a little over a year into COVID. The first vaccines had recently been rolled out. Those of us who trusted the science and the CDC enthusiastically got our shots and were cautiously going out in public again to do things like, you know, shop for dog food.

My daughter and I masked up and went out to get some provisions for Luke. While browsing the aisles, she spotted a gap in the otherwise stacked shelves and promptly inserted herself into it. Why? I don't really know. She was smack in the middle of those awkward middle school years at the time. Between that and the lockdown that we all just been through, she probably felt weird about being around other people. Plus, she has a tendency to do absurdist things once in a while, just for fun.

When I turned around and saw just the legs, I pulled out my phone and snapped this pic. It's a kinda strange portrait, I know, but I really like it.

Crossings

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

Even the most ordinary things can look dramatic at a jaunty angle with dramatic lighting.

Contemplative

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

Sometimes I wonder if he actually contemplates anything at all, or if he's just looking around blankly, taking things in without judgement.

Backlit Buds

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

This little guy was growing out the right angle where the brick sidewalk met a house's foundation. It seemed an unlikely place for it to be rooted, but as Jeff Goldblum's chaos-theorist character, Malcom, said in Jurassic Park, life finds a way.

The late afternoon light was illuminating it beautifully. The buds were quite literally glowing, and the gossamer spider webs on it were still holding onto a bit of the rain that has come through earlier.

A Thorny Bisection

2025-08-26T21:21:59Z

The Anza-Borrego desert, in California, near the border with Mexico, has a harsh beauty that I really love. This is the sort of vegetation that thrives in the place, and you obviously have to be careful to not get too close.

I've been there a few times, and would love to go back there and spend more time in the stillness and solitude of the place.